IASWECE Newsletter 06 2018

Faulkner, Myanmar

Adventure in Myanmar: A new Waldorf initiative at the Lotus Garden International School

By Elisabeth Faulkner ________________________________________________________________________________________ After fifteen years as a Kindergarten teacher in England I was looking for a new challenge. Having lived in Indonesia for ten years before that, my fond memories of this part of the world were becoming stronger rather than more distant. I had particularly appreciated the uncomplicated nature of life in South East Asia, the closeness to nature and natural warmth of the peoples and the tolerance and ability to manage in the face of trying circumstances that reflected a trust in the working of spirit among ordinary people. I also felt I could more easily cultivate a sense of gratitude for the things I was taking for granted in my life in Britain, were I too experience having them denied me from time to time! And so when a class teacher colleague put the idea to me of my helping set up a new kindergarten in Myanmar as part of the first Steiner school there, I was ‘ripe’ for the challenge. Together, we set off for Myanmar two weeks after finishing the school year with our respective classes at the Steiner Academy in Frome, England. We had expected to be starting our new classes within two weeks of arrival, so it was, with some relief, we arrived to discover the school was little more than a walled-in plot of land with the bamboo shells of four classrooms, the beginnings of bits of playground equipment and a rather unglamorous bungalow on site. Yet we were greatly underestimating the extraordinary capacity to work of the Burmese people. A team of sometimes up to thirty people labored from dawn till dusk, seven days a week, and, as far as we could tell, without complaint, to create from this underwhelming start, four enchanting bamboo/ glass-walled classrooms furnished with bespoke teak furniture (no IKEAs out here!), a playground of slides, swings and even a flying fox and various flower and vegetable gardens. In the event, the school opened at the end of August on a site completely transformed.

Decades of isolation have meant things that could be easily purchased in more developed countries are simply not available here. Not surprisingly then, people are tremendously resourceful. Personally I have always enjoyed the challenge of finding ways of making something myself – beeswax block crayons has been my most recent success! – but having people around who do it as a matter of course has been a joy. “You

IASWECE Newsletter 06 2018

Faulkner, Myanmar

need balls of wool. Right, I’ll go and skin a sheep!” Yet even more than their capacity to work, resourcefulness and genuine wish to help, the warmth and hospitality of the people has greatly exceeded my expectations. I am regularly fed and given gifts by friends and parents at the school, invariably smiled at or greeted by strangers and, at least so far, never taken advantage of, for example by being charged a higher price, by people selling goods or services. International schools exist in a strange twilight world here in Myanmar. They are not accountable to the Ministry of Education, falling instead under the aegis of the Ministry of Planning and Finance. Freed from the burden of paperwork, I have the time and energy to really enjoy my work here. The group of local people that have made the school come about trust in my knowledge and experience which only motivates me more to want to share what I know. I work with two other experienced teachers, Paul (class 1-3) and Phillip (class 6-7). We each have a Burmese teaching assistant. Harn is the founder of the school and nominal principal, Ying the accountant, Sai La Aung the caretaker (no request is too great!) and Ko Tun our cook (a daily lunch you’ll miss at weekends!). So our faculty is small but very together. Indeed, we meet every Tuesday after school to meditate together and every Thursday to sing, do child study, work on a theme and discuss any matters arising. We are currently focusing on the meeting of Western esoteric and Buddhist spiritual practice, our different religious backgrounds (Buddhist, Christian and Muslim) enriching the theme. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of the families involved in the school are Buddhist. Indeed of the fourteen kindergarten children, two come from Christian families, the other twelve Buddhist. Our festival calendar thus marks the main Buddhist festivals – I have certainly found it fascinating to come to learn the deeper meanings of the various full moon festivals we have celebrated and to find ways of carrying these into kindergarten celebrations (for example, reinventing the lantern festival in the process!). But in addition we will be celebrating the Eid (Muslim) and have recently had, what for many, was their first Christmas festival, with a Mother Mary whole school Play, a hotpot feast and a lit tree that would have done Norway proud!

Interestingly, though perhaps not surprisingly given there are well over a hundred languages spoken in the country, there is less commonality in language than religion in the class. Indeed three of the children do not speak the national language Myanmar/Burmese. No doubt some parents are drawn to the school simply because English is the language used in the classrooms. The speed with which the children are picking up the

IASWECE Newsletter 06 2018

Faulkner, Myanmar

language (and the odd song in Swiss Deutsch!) seems to have more than satisfied their leap of faith in sending the children to a school in which the method of teaching/learning is so different from that practiced in the various public and private schools in the area. Even more marked for me (and I believe some of the parents) than the children’s progress in English has been the change in their ability to play. While many children do still play together on the streets in the poorer areas (of which there are many), children from more affluent homes do much less so. While the school has been set up with a commitment to not allow a child’s circumstances (i.e. the parents’ ability to pay fees) to prejudice their ability to attend the school, there are more children of parents of greater financial means who are coming towards us at least in this initial stage. Although teachers are very much held on a pedestal in Myanmar society, I have been surprised to discover that the effects of over-indulgent parenting (tech exposure, lack of clear boundaries etc.) are as much in evidence here as in more economically-developed countries, which I suppose highlights the fact that the need for an education of the three R's (Rhythm, Routine, Reverence) is as great here. So, four and a half months in, I can say I am very glad to have made the commitment to teach at the school for this its first year, and I am sure I shall commit to remain into the school’s second year and probably beyond. I have found the teaching experience richly rewarding and have thoroughly enjoyed being able to explore the country in the many holidays. It really is a fascinating and unspoilt land. There are still a number of areas closed to travelers as ethnic conflict continues, not least in Rakhine (a conflict that re-erupted shortly after our arrival) but there is no sense in which I feel in danger here. The school, with the support of the Freunde der Erziehungskunst, provides me with accommodation in a very nice house and an allowance to meet day-to-day expenses. As the school grows – we are already looking to open up a second kindergarten in the near future – we will need more, adventurous souls to come and share their experience. Might you be one of them? ________________________________________________________________________________________ Born and raised in a small Swiss village Elisabeth Faulkner has lived and worked in various countries. After entering the journey of motherhood she started to engage with questions around Early Childhood Education and later decided to become a Waldorf Kindergarten teacher. She taught at different Steiner Schools in England and is currently working in Myanmar. IASWECE is supporting introduction courses in Waldorf education since 2012. More information about Waldorf initiatives in Myanmar you find here: http://www.iaswece.org/category/asia/myanmar-en/